A Hart County, Georgia woman, who operated a nonprofit kennel for dogs, faces 26 counts of cruelty to animal charges following her arrest Friday.
The 67-year-old woman who operated Southeast Welfare Animal Service, was placed in the Hart County Jail and was released on bond shortly afterward, according to the Hart County Sheriff’s Office. All of the charges are misdemeanors.
The animal service is located off Knox Bridge Crossing Road, which parallels I-85 and is near the state border with South Carolina.
“The woman wasn’t mean to the dogs. Actually they were overfed, but they were inside a metal building,” Sheriff Mike Cleveland said. The building was extremely hot and the conditions were unsanitary, the sheriff said.
The Georgia Department of Agriculture has placed a stop order on the operation, according to department spokesman Matthew Agvent. The investigation is continuing and an administrative review will be made by the department’s legal team, he said.
“All of our license holders have an obligation to provide humane care for the animals they are entrusted with,” Agvent said. “In this case, we found multiple and pretty severe violations, so it’s a clear failure on the operator’s part to provide humane care for these animals.”
“She surrendered the dogs and they were dispersed to different veterinarians and others,” Cleveland said.
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Over Thursday and Friday, he said 26 dogs were removed from the facility. Three dogs that belonged to the woman were left, he said.
Hart deputies, along with the county’s animal control unit, and Department of Agriculture officials were at the location Thursday removing most of the dogs with assistance from a local veterinarian’s office.
The kennel was operating as a 501c nonprofit, according to the business profile on Facebook.
“We are not a rescue but provide a safe haven for senior dogs and to help dogs on death road,” according to the page.
The Southeast Welfare Service Facebook shows that numerous people have donated money and supplies to the operation.
The woman started a GoFundMe page in May to raise $425 for the purchase of a large drum fan to help keep the animals cool during the summer months. The page shows it raised $535.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Hart County officials report taking 26 dogs from unsanitary kennel
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